Wall Street Journal - "Karl Rove: Obama Owns the Debt-Ceiling Fiasco"

[TomCADem]

More eye candy for the Tea Party lurkers who seek blame Democrats, and Give Republicans a free pass. Here is Karl Rove, surprise, blaming everything on President Obama, and not on Republicans who are throwing each other under the bus as Cantor attacks Boehner who attacks McConnell who is also attacked by Demint regarding the proper Republican response to the impending default.

Yet, here is Karl Rove saying that President Obama has been too partisan and shrill in pandering to his base.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304911104576443863077227784.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The president wants a $2.4 trillion debt-ceiling increase to get him past next year's election—and the deal he's proposing is based on promised future cuts paired with substantial tax increases on households earning more than $250,000 a year.

House Speaker John Boehner proposed matching a debt-ceiling hike with substantial spending cuts. The Congressional Budget Office estimates federal spending at $46.1 trillion over the next 10 years, a dramatic escalation from projections before Mr. Obama took office. Mr. Boehner's modest proposal was to trim that back 5.2% over the decade, but the president balked.

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Mr. Obama has offered no evidence since becoming president that he wants to restrain the upward trajectory of government spending. He does want higher taxes to pay for significantly higher federal spending. But he wants Republicans to deliver the tax increases, since Democrats couldn't pass them last year despite controlling both chambers of Congress.

Republicans have wisely declined. Demanding the GOP vote for immediate tax increases that would be offset by vague, future tax cuts conjures up images of Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. The tax increases would be real—the future tax rate cuts would be imaginary. And Mr. Obama has opposed any serious spending enforcement mechanisms, such as a balanced budget amendment or hard caps on spending.

His tone also hasn't helped achieve a comprehensive agreement. The president's two most recent press conferences, in which he accused the GOP of foot-dragging, convinced Republicans that he was interested in scoring political points and attracting independents, not facilitating a deal. Convening high-profile White House meetings without offering substantive concrete proposals and then having his aides leak madly (and inaccurately) to the press afterward further squandered trust.